1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a wire saw used for cutting stone, concrete and the like and particularly to a wire saw having a plurality of abrasive sleeves spaced at predetermined intervals along a wire rope.
2. Background Art
A wire saw which is of interest to this invention is disclosed in European Patent Publication No. 0,160,625. The wire saw disclosed therein comprises a wire rope on which a plurality of abrasive sleeves are disposed at predetermined intervals longitudinally of the rope, said abrasive sleeves being fixed in position relative to the wire rope by forming a layer of elastic material, such as thermoplastic rubber, on the wire rope and at least between adjacent sleeves.
A wire saw disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,212 has substantially the same construction as described above.
Generally, a wire saw is furnished in the form of a closed loop and is rotated when used for cutting. During cutting, the wire saw is subjected to repetitive bending.
When attention is paid to the above-mentioned prior art, it is seen that the abrasive sleeves are fixed to the wire rope through an elastic material. However, because the intervening elastic material is foreign to the wire rope and also to the abrasive sleeves, the bond strength is not so high. Therefore, there possibly is encountered a problem that peeling takes place between the elastic material and the abrasive sleeves and between the elastic material and the wire rope.